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Lessons From Baseball: 3 Ways To Give The Best Customer Experience

Baseball managers work in the dugout to put all the pieces together. The goal is to win the game, while giving the fans a great experience.

Business leaders have a similar role.

Spring Is In The AirPitchers and catchers have reported to Spring Training. Yes, I’m expecting another great baseball season.

It got me thinking about how business leaders are like baseball managers. When a fan thinks of their favorite baseball team, they first think of the star players—the home run slugger, the lights-out closer, or the starter that pitched a perfect game last season.

But What About The Manager?Baseball managers manage and coach all the players—the goals are to win the game and give the fans a great experience. Business leaders have a similar role to play, managing and coaching all the players from product development to sales to partnering. They aim to beat the competition, while creating a great experience for the company’s fans (its customers).

When they win, the result is return on investment (ROI). Accountants might measure ROI in dollars and cents, but the true measure of ROI is customers’ experiences.

In a successful organization, employees understand the importance of creating a great customer experience. It’s foundational for the entire team.

Employees that understand this are your MVPs.

Why The Customer Experience MattersI could move my best sales person to a drastically different area and they’d succeed. The same goes for great channel partners.

Why? Because regardless of what they’re selling, they always create an unbelievable customer experience.

Learning the product is easy. It’s the focus on the customer that makes the difference

Here are the three core parts of delivering a great customer experience:

1. Design It InA great customer experience begins with a great design.

Customers who can take advantage of every bit of functionality that your product offers get the best experiences. It starts by designing products that are useful and intuitive.

We can’t expect our users to read a 500-page manual cover to cover. We have to make it easy for them.

So manage your design process with customer experience at front-of-mind.

2. Listen To Customers’ NeedsWhen the customer experience is less than perfect, it could mean there’s a flaw in the product.

Or—more likely—the sales team could have done a better job of determining the customer’s needs and matching the right product to those needs. If the sales team listens to the customer and provides the product that solves their problem, the final customer experience is stellar. This makes for stronger brand loyalty and higher profitability.

So manage your sales process to be customer driven. Sales and satisfaction will follow.

3. Give Great Training And SupportA company can make a great product, but if customers have no idea how to use it, they won’t have a great experience.

Sometimes, it’s as simple as making sure customers can get quick answers when they need help. And by providing meaningful training, you can ensure the customer gets the most out of the product.

The training and support organization needs to be there as the customer implements, helping every customer learn and use all of the functionality available.

So manage your service and support team to provide thorough, relevant training and quick, instructive support.

The Bottom LineThe manager that can focus his team on providing an unforgettable customer experience will help the company make money, and do it year after year.

I demand ROI from my team. The challenge is to put the customer experience first. The rest will follow.

Now Read This:

Mark Weber is president of NetApp U.S. Public Sector. He is responsible for managing and developing government business at the federal, state, and local levels and oversees all aspects of the public sector subsidiary, including sales, engineering, business development, finance, operations, and marketing.

Mark holds an MBA from the College of William and Mary and a bachelor of science degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He sits on the Advisory Council for the Department of Business & Economics at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and is a board member of the Virginia Tech Science and Engineering Regional Growth Enterprise (VT-SERGE).

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Professional baseball’s spring training is taking place and the athletes are getting ready for another great season of baseball. Why not a little corporate spring training to get ready for a great business season. Here’s a few tips that every manger and leader in business can use to help their team win the game of business.